Ghosts

A major revival of Ibsen's classic play Ghosts in London starring Lesley Sharp and Iain Glen, who also directs.

Henrik Ibsen's play Ghosts reveals a compelling tale of love, betrayal and hypocrisy as ghosts from the past come back to haunt the living, making sure that the sins of the fathers are not forgotten.

"Terrifically compelling... shockingly good" The Independent

The cast for Ghosts features Iain Glen as 'Pastor Manders' and Lesley Sharp as 'Mrs Alving' along with Harry Treadaway, Jessica Raine and Malcolm Storry. The production is directed by Iain Glen who makes his directorial debut with this production presented in a new version by Frank McGuinness.

"I've seen some good Ghosts in my time, but none better than this" The Times

"A new West End production of Ghosts may seem defiantly non-commercial fare but it is given a piercing and reverberating intensity here. Iain Glen, directing as well as acting in it, might have given himself more notes on his own wayward accent as the priggishly moral Pastor Manders but Lesley Sharp goes with hardly a pause for breath to give a performance of controlled distress as another troubled matriarch at the opposite end of the spectrum of anxiety, and Harry Treadaway charts the disintegration of her son with a wounding, gathering realisation of his plight." The Express On Sunday

"Everyone is going to blazes in Ibsen's doomy domestic tragedy Ghosts, which is now enjoying - if that's the right word - a major West End revival... Unfortunately, this staging of Ghosts inspires gloom only by being boring. The folly was to believe that Glen could both act and direct. Without deft pacing, Ibsen's expose of festering secrets comes over as perfunctory. The dramatic tension is slack too, because half the hints that Ibsen dropped about forbidden desires aren't picked up. There's just one flicker of sexual chemistry between Sharp and Glen, quickly doused. Frank McGuinness's new translation doesn't help, lurching between obtrusively modern and stiffly archaic phrases." The Independent on Sunday

"This is not a performance that commands the attention as it should, not even with syphilis, incest and burntdown orphanages on offer. Directed by Iain Glen, who also plays Parson Manders - aka "traditional morality and convention" - it manages to confirm the cliched prejudice against Ibsen: he gives us nothing but Nordic angst, gloom and claustrophobia... in McGuinness's serviceable but unremarkable version." The Sunday Times

Ghosts in London at the Duchess Theatre previewed from 11 February 2010, opened on 23 February 2010 and closes on 15 May 2010.